His unlucky first-round draw against Alexander Zverev aside, things are looking up for Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros. He came away from a lopsided defeat to Hubert Hurkacz in Rome earlier this month unsure if he would even be able to play in Paris. Now that he has arrived at the Grand Slam he's won a record 14 times, his confidence is growing.
"Physically I feel better," he said in a Saturday press conference. "I am improving in different ways. I have less limitations than three, four weeks ago, without a doubt."
After practice sessions with the likes of Holger Rune and Sebastian Korda, Nadal is happy with his body and his game. The only question now is whether he can translate that onto the match court.
"I am feeling competitive on the practices," he said. "Probably not yet on the professional matches. But on the practices, I can tell you, I am able to play almost against anyone. And I don't feel much worse than the others, so that's give me some hope."
Carlos Moya, Nadal's coach, shared even more good news about his fellow Spaniard's preparations.
"In Rome he had some good sessions and others not so good," he said in an ATPTour.com interview. "Here, they’ve all been positive. They’re practice sessions, but he hasn’t lost a set so far. I think it’s come at the best time."
In order to prolong what will likely be his farewell Roland Garros, Nadal must defeat the in-form player in men's tennis: Rome champion Zverev, who reached the Roland Garros semifinals each of the past three years. It will be a rematch of their epic meeting two years ago on Court Philippe Chatrier, when the pair battled at the highest level for more than three hours before Zverev suffered a devastating ankle injury just before the second-set tiebreak.
"Of course on the paper it's not the best draw," Nadal said. "I play against one of the toughest opponents possible, and he came here winning the last event and it's a Masters 1000. It's not a small one.
"What can I do? That's the draw. Just try to be ready for it."
Win or lose in that marquee matchup, Nadal is keeping the door open for a return to the tournament.
"In terms of if that's going to be my last Roland Garros, it's a long answer, but I think I need to answer that, because we're going avoid future questions since the beginning," he said with an smile. "So I'm going to do it.
"As I said, it's a big, big chance that it's going to be my last Roland Garros. But if I have to tell you it's 100% my last Roland Garros, sorry, but I will not, because I cannot predict what's going on. I hope you understand."
With an increasingly clean bill of health, Nadal is enjoying his tennis and enjoying traveling with his family. He also wants time to see how his game will progress if he can stay injury-free.
While fans may be anxious for the Spaniard's first Roland Garros match since he won the 2022 final, Nadal is in a different mindset: "I am not anxious, no. I am focused on trying to play well. That's it."
He later added: "In my mind is do something different [from Rome] and play much better and give myself a chance to play competitive. Then it's going to be enough or not... The answer is going to be on Monday."
